Soluble Fermentable Dietary Fibre (Pectin) Decreases Caloric Intake, Adiposity and Lipidaemia in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Rats

Funding: This work was funded by the Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Dose-dependent effects of a soluble dietary fibre (pectin) on food intake, adiposity, gut hypertrophy and gut satiety hormone secretion in rats

Acknowledgments We thank Donna Wallace and Animal House staff at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health for the daily care of experimental rats and for the body weight, food intake and MRI measurements.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Magnetotransport of lanthanum doped RuSr2GdCu2O8 - the role of gadolinium

Strongly underdoped RuSr_1.9La_0.1GdCu_2O_8 has been comprehensively studied by dc magnetization, microwave measurements, magnetoresistivity and Hall resistivity in fields up to 9 T and temperatures down to 1.75 K. Electron doping by La reduces the hole concentration in the CuO2 planes and completely suppresses superconductivity. Microwave absorption, dc resistivity and ordinary Hall effect data indicate that the carrier concentration is reduced and a semiconductor-like temperature dependence is observed. Two magnetic ordering transitions are observed. The ruthenium sublattice orders antiferromagnetically at 155 K for low applied magnetic field and the gadolinium sublattice antiferromagnetically orders at 2.8 K. The magnetoresistivity exhibits a complicated temperature dependence due to the combination of the two magnetic orderings and spin fluctuations. It is shown that the ruthenium magnetism influences the conductivity in the RuO2 layers while the gadolinium magnetism influences the conductivity in the CuO2 layers. The magnetoresistivity is isotropic above 4 K, but it becomes anisotropic when gadolinium orders antiferromagnetically.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, submitted to European Physical Journal

The Budget Control Act and the Defense Budget: Frequently Asked Questions

This report addresses several frequently asked questions related to the Budget Control Act (BCA) and the defense budget. The BCA limits discretionary spending on defense through the process of sequestration and was enacted in 2011. Recent proposals to remove the restrictions of the BCA on defense or raise the spending limits are also discussed

Genomic Education – Bench to Bedside: A Novel Approach to Teaching Genetic Diagnosis

Problem: Teaching genetic diagnosis is required in all medical schools and physician assistant programs. However, with thousands of relevant findings and thousands more rare diseases, lectures and narrative resources are inadequate for the task. Whatever information that is taught is easily forgotten and does not carry over into the clinic. Many rare disease patients suffer through “diagnostic odysseys” (3 to 30 years to correct diagnosis). Approach: We used a commercially available diagnostic decision support system (DDSS) that encompasses all Mendelian disorders with known genes, together with other conditions in their differential diagnosis, and a case-based educational approach to teach diagnostic skills in a way that could then be replicated in the clinic. After a lecture, which included a demonstration using the DDSS with a sample case, 74 students were assigned to replicate the sample case at home and then complete 7 other anonymized cases, all with known rare diagnoses. After each case, students saved the “patient summary” that included the findings entered and differential diagnosis list and submitted it as homework. Students also completed a questionnaire about their experience, including satisfaction. Outcomes: Students were effective at diagnosing rare diseases in 483 of the 514 testing instances, a 94% success rate, with success defined as the correct diagnosis being listed in the differential diagnosis. Eighty-five percent of students rated this interactive learning session “highly,” encouraged us to repeat the assignment next year, and 89% reported that they wanted to use the DDSS during their clinical rotations in the coming year. Next Steps: We plan to refine the cases, add more material on findings, and ensure that all the synonyms students might use are in the software tool. We plan to repeat the program next year and recommend its use more widely in medical education

“Exploring the Basement of Social Justice Issues”: A Graduate Upon Graduation

Photograph of rides building up, taken J. Stevens' Fair, 20 June 1961 whole general view, looking West. See Leeson's notebook 9, pages 92-95 for notes

Search for Magnetic Order in Superconducting RuSr2Eu1.2Ce0.8Cu2O10

Neutron diffraction, polarized neutron transmission, and small angle neutron scattering have been used to investigate the crystal structure and nature of the magnetic order in a polycrystalline sample of RuSr2Eu1.2Ce0.8Cu2O10. The sample was made with the Eu-153 (98.8%) isotope to reduce the high neutron absorption for the naturally occurring element. Full refinements of the crystal structure, space group I4/mmm, are reported. At low temperatures only a single magnetic peak is clearly observed in a relatively wide angular range. A sharp spin reorientation transition (SRT) is observed around 35 K, close to the superconducting transition temperature (Tc~40 K). Between the spin reorientation temperature and the Neel temperature of 59 K, additional magnetic reflections are observed. However, none of these can be simply indexed on the chemical unit cell, either as commensurate peaks or simple incommensurate magnetism, and the paucity of reflections at low T compels the conclusion that these magnetic Bragg peaks arise from an impurity phase. X-ray and neutron diffraction on the pressed pellet both show that the sample does not appear to contain substantial impurity phases, but it turns out that the magnetic impurity peaks exhibit strong preferred orientation with respect to the pellet orientation, while the primary phase does not. We have been unable to observe any magnetic order that can be identified with the ruthenate-cuprate system.Comment: 7 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Different types of soluble fermentable dietary fibre decrease food intake, body weight gain and adiposity in young adult male rats

We thank Donna Wallace and the Rowett Animal House staff for the daily care of experimental rats, body weight and food intake measurements and MRI scanning, Vivien Buchan and Donna Henderson of the Rowett Analytical Department for proximate analyses and SCFA GC, and Andrew Chappell for conducting the beta-glucan analysis. This research was funded by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division.Peer reviewedPublisher PD